Black Chamber Announces Small Business Plan

WASHINGTON -- Harry C. Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, has unveiled a new campaign aimed at ending the ongoing Gulf drilling moratorium – which is costing Gulf businesses millions of dollars and forcing small business owners to close their doors. Before a Congressional hearing, Mr. Alford asked legislators and federal regulators to focus on the bad actors that caused the spill and not punish innocent citizens whose livelihoods are being jeopardized by BP's culture of carelessness.

"It's time to stop the moratorium and get the people of the Gulf back to work. If the government wants to punish anyone – they should punish BP, not the hardworking people of the Gulf region," Mr. Alford said. "BP's recklessness and the ensuing moratorium have sent Gulf workers and small business owners to the unemployment lines; now the government is using its brutish regulatory authority to expand its scope of powers and extend the moratorium, which is costing the area thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost economic activity."

Mr. Alford's new campaign: Protect American Energy Workers aims to educate regulators and legislators about the need to aim their regulatory focus on the cause of the spill, BP, not the energy workers who help fuel our national economy.

"Protect American Energy Workers will highlight BP's history of poor performance at the expense of our nation's workforce, literally. In the U.S., the company killed over 150 workers and injured more than 15,000 in the last decade despite being fined hundreds of millions of dollars," Mr. Alford said. "Legislators and regulators should work to help displaced Gulf workers and focus blame on where it belongs…BP."

Mr. Alford announced the campaign while testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.